Federal prosecutors have charged a former Todd Beamer High School
student with one count of transportation of a minor for criminal sexual
activity.

Kamajah Jahrico Skannal, 20, is currently released on bail, but if convicted, he could face at least 10 years in prison.

Charging documents claim Skannal knowingly transported the victim
on or around April 21, 2016, to Oregon through interstate commerce with
the intent for the victim to engage in sexual activity, specifically
using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct.

A grand jury charged him after he was arrested by U.S. Marshals on Oct. 25, 2016.

Skannal, who was 19 when he was arrested, is alleged to have
transported a then-17-year-old girl, who is now 18, to Oregon to work in
a Beaverton strip club, among other illegal activities.

In an affidavit, detectives with the Child Exploitation Task
Force explained that their investigation began when the victim’s mother
reported her missing on April 15, 2016. Her mother believed she was
being sex trafficked.

Officers found the victim later that day while she was on her way
to meet Skannal, the affidavit continues. She was returned to her
mother, however.

Federal Way Police Department spokeswoman Cathy Schrock confirmed the girl was again reported missing in June 2016.

This time, the girl’s mother told police her daughter was with her ex-boyfriend Skannal, who was sexually trafficking her.

Furthermore, according to the affidavit, the girl was staying at the mother of Skannal’s child’s apartment in Federal Way.

Detectives claim this woman, as well as a group of girls called
“Kam’s Angels,” allegedly worked for Skannal as prostitutes. The
victim’s mother believed her daughter was also a prostitute.

Court documents state the victim’s mother gave police Skannal’s Twitter account and her daughter’s Instagram.

From that information, police recognized the suspect and found a
post of a young woman, the victim, with provocative writing alluding she
was involved in prostitution.

The detective also ran the phone number of the woman the victim
had been living with and found an ad associated with the number on
Backpage.com, a website commonly used for prostitution.

The victim’s phone records displayed several calls to
Portland-area strip clubs, hotels and hotel booking agencies. Upon
calling one of the strip clubs, detectives learned the victim and the
woman she was staying with were fired after stripping at the club in
April because management had discovered they used fake identification
cards from Illinois.

In August 2016, detectives used a search warrant to discover
Skannal and the victim were leaving Milton, where Skannal lives, and
traveling to the Portland area.

According to a motion for pretrial release document, Skannal’s
public defender, Susan F. Wilk, wrote the victim traveled with him on
her own accord, as the two were involved in a longtime relationship
while they both attended Todd Beamer.

“All available information suggests that [the victim] traveled to
Oregon to work in a strip club voluntarily and provided the money she
earned to Mr. Skannal in exchange for shelter, food, protection and
other needs voluntarily,” Wilk wrote in the document.

The victim is now living in Ohio, court documents state.

After Skannal’s arrest, prosecutors said it was a serious risk that he would flee if he was released before his trial.

“He has no employment but was recently arrested with nearly
$10,000 on his person an a loaded gun,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Brian
Tsuchida wrote in a detention order. “The government proferred [sic]
that he is charged with a crime in Oregon that involves vulnerable
victims that could be swayed by defendant.”

Tsuchida’s reference to Skannal’s arrest with nearly $10,000 and a
loaded .45 caliber handgun refers to a September 2016 arrest by Federal
Way police on different charges: felony harassment and fourth-degree
assault.

Wilk, however, his U.S. public defender, argued the $10,000 was actually Skannal’s grandmother’s.

According to court documents, she had supposedly asked him to
deposit the money at a Chase Bank because she was feeling “lazy” and
that the money was for her son who is currently attending Washington
State University.

The felony harassment and assault charges stemmed from an
incident when Federal Way police were dispatched to the Bayview
Apartments for reports of threats on Oct. 29, 2015.

There, the officer found a then-20-year-old man and a
then-19-year-old woman in the parking lot. The woman had been in an
argument with her roommate and her roommate’s mother.

According to those charging documents, three men, including
Skannal, were at her apartment at the time and threatened to kill the
victim.

The woman’s boyfriend showed up, and he asked the group where his
cat was, as they told the woman they threw it outside of a window.
Skannal allegedly confronted the man while another suspect walked up and
tried to punch the victim.

He ducked and returned a punch, but Skannal allegedly picked him up and threw him to the ground.

The three suspects began “stomping, punching and choking” the
victim, according to court documents. He was somehow able to get back
up.

The victim then tried to pick up Skannal, but the suspect’s shirt
came up, exposing a silver revolver with a black handle, charging
documents state.

During the fight, the suspects threatened to kill the victim. He
told police when he saw the gun, he became even more fearful for his
life.

The man told police he was aware that Skannal was allegedly involved in criminal activity and that he was “extremely dangerous.”

In August 2016, detectives presented photos of Skannal and
another suspect to the couple who were able to identify them as the
people who threatened and hurt them.

Skannal was arrested at the Surprise Lake Village Apartments in
Milton and booked into jail on Sept. 19, 2016. He was released on Sept.
26, 2016, on bond, however.